I stared at the quibbering bunch of guards. Honestly, the entire time we- I mean, I was setting this trap up, they hadn't stopped fighting. I could see clear hatred even from this far away.

They also weren't great guards. They played cards and kinda just loitered around rather than actually be on watch. I had the feeling they were more so just here in case something went wrong rather than a full guard detail.

"Enough!" One of them, seemingly the leader, shouted. The abrupt shout made me freeze entirely out of habit.

Silence descended upon the old metro. No one made noise. 'Course, their side didn't know Mira and I were here. That'd be changing soon though. Real soon. I checked the equipment one last time and then moved into position inside of one of the shopfronts.

I spoke, my voice barely a whisper, "Ready."

"Are you sure about this, Shiro?" Mira asked me for the last time. She'd been against a few details of the plan, but I'd barely managed to persuade her. This was our best bet.

I checked my shotgun one last time. It was loaded and ready to go. "Chek. Do you have a better idea?"

"No…" Mira sighed again. She'd been doing that a lot. Guess the stress was getting to her? "Okay. Three. Two-"

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!

Gun fire erupted from the subway platform back the way I came. It wasn't directed at our mystery group though. No- this burst was bait to lure them further into the halls between shopfronts. It seemed to do the trick too.

There was zero hesitation in the group. They all jumped to their feet and had guns up in mere moments. It was a feat that showed the group's heavy training. They definitely weren't just nobodies. The group dropped into firing positions and got behind cover a few seconds after, ready to take on any attack.

Mira continued to make noise with a few different guns, simulating a skirmish. It lasted a bit, though eventually trailed off. "As good as it'll get, Shiro. Running low on ammo."

"S fine." I whispered to her.

The leader of the group spoke up. I was too far to hear much, but his orders sounded sharp and concise. Within moments the squad formed up and stalked forward. Their ability to follow orders looked almost second-nature.

The leader took rearguard, watching the group's six. Slowly but steadily, they stalked down the hall toward me. I held absolutely still, blending in with the rubble all around me. They hopped the turnstiles and worked into the hall itself with flashlights panning across the place.

About halfway down, I watched one of them trip. He fell hard, slamming into the ground as my wire caught his foot. This was it- the first hint they'd have that something was wrong. I held my breath, hoping it'd all go perfectly.

The second in line flashed his rifle around, attached flashlight illuminating the area. "Sven?"

The guy on the ground twisted and pulled himself back up. "I just tripped over something. I'm. Fine."

Did it- did it not work? Weird… that trap was supposed to be fullproof. My hands tightened around the Rhymer. If it didn't work-

The entire squad flicked and fired at the end of the hall. The bright flashes of their guns briefly illuminated me in the shadows. I squeezed my eyes shut, desperately resisting the urge to call out to Mira and check if she was alright. I just had to trust that everything would go according to plan.

Sven stepped forward-

The wire wrapped around his foot finally pulled enough. From the depths of a shopfront, an object bounced out. Here it goes. I tightened my grip even more, ready for shit to hit the fan.

The leader at the end of the line used the guy in front of him as a human shield. "Grenade!"

An explosion rocked the area, casting dust and debris everywhere. Squeals of pain erupted from the group, with several of them being knocked off their feat. I couldn't quite make anything out through the dust cloud.

"Now!" Mira shouted into our comms. The next second, her SMG lit up the downed with bursts of fire.

The leader at the back of the group jumped to his feet and sprinted back toward me immediately. His entire squad was in disarray, but he didn't seem to care. I pulled one last wire I'd set up, holding it tight-

The leader snagged it with his foot, ripping it from my hands. He hit the ground hard and tumbled to a halt just outside of my hiding place. I hesitated for a brief moment before tossing a grenade toward the downed people-

Boom!

The downed leader shot in the direction of the grenade on reaction, likely hitting his own guys. I tossed a rock to his side, making him roll onto his back to try and twist toward it-

Bang!

From his other side, I popped out and hit him center mass with the Rhymer. I ducked back into the shop immediately and popped the shell out of the breach. Dozens of shots erupted up and down the hall, plinking off of the shopfront's doors.

I fumbled for a shell in my pocket, taking several seconds longer than I should've to reload the Rhymer and peek out again. The hallway was in absolute carnage. 'Course, there was the guy I shot point blank just outside of the shop. Dead, I think. Then there were four dead guys from a combination of grenades from Mira and I. That left just two still standing.

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One guy, the closest to me, just now started to get to his feet. He staggered, splashing blood from several serrations across his chest with each movement. I brought my Rhymer S32 to bear, hesitation pausing my finger. "Surrender!"

He went for his pistol, forcing my hand. I squeezed my trigger, sending a blast of pellets at the guy. He jolted back and fell to the ground, going entirely still.

Piercing cold spread through my arm and trailed to my chest-

I ducked back into a doorway just in the nick of time thanks to a warning from Insight. A bullet still managed to graze my arm, shearing through cloth and flesh like it wasn't even there, but it was better than the alternative. I suppressed a yelp and shakily moved another round into the breach. Just outside, the gunfire from Mira intensified.

After a few seconds, I tried to peek again-

I moved back with another grave warning from Insight. The last guy was still looking at me. I grabbed a chunk of debris off the ground and tossed it across the hall. As soon as it cleared the door, a salvo of bullets flew under it.

The moment the shooter shot, another burst of fire came from down the hall. A body noisily hit the ground, their gear thumping around. Then, silence.

A moment passed. The moment stretched on, quickly becoming a minute. I couldn't take the suffocating silence anymore. "You good, Mira?"

Mira let out a dry chuckle. "In one piece… Get them all?"

I hesitated a moment before ducking out of the shop to check the battlefield. Seven were down for the count with various fatal injuries. "Clear. C'mon up."

I moved out into the hall and checked to make sure they were really dead. None of them had a pulse. Seven armed and trained guards were wiped out just like that by our ambush… I guess I should feel proud? That our plan worked and didn't blow up in our face, I mean.

I leaned against the wall with my limbs shaking fiercely. The adrenaline pumping through my body felt like poison now that the fighting was all over. I took a few deep breaths, trying to suppress it the best I could. I didn't want Mira to see me like this.

"You're bleeding." She walked over to me and flashed her light over my injury. The concern in her voice was unmistakable.

I glanced down toward the trickle of blood and cut through my jacket. I barely even felt it. If anything, my shoulder was sore from firing the Rhymer so much. "Just a graze. I'll be fine."

I pulled my bag off my shoulders and searched through it for a bundle of bandages. Then I simply disinfected and wrapped the injury up. The wound wasn't particularly deep so it wasn't a big issue. I really hoped Quick Healing did indeed work on diseases. Just in case.

Thankfully, I was the only one to get an injury. Mira was covered in dust and shards of concrete, but that wasn't anything new. Other than that, she looked completely fine.

Mira watched me dress the wound, then moved down the hall to get a better firing position on the entry point the squad guarded. "Think anyone else is coming?"

"Hope not. I don't think we'll be able to use the same tactic…" I sighed and glanced at the carnage around me. There was no denying its effect though.

Mira casually pulled another grenade from her pocket and tossed it into the air. "I could trap one of their bodies."

"Careful!" I watched her like a lunatic as she got the grenade… and then proceeded to play catch once more. I threw my hands up in annoyance. "Best we don't anyway. Same reason as before."

"Eh... I'll keep guard then. They looked Fedra to me, but go ahead and check." Mira ordered, sounding quite similar to Uncle Ezra.

Looking through a bunch of corpses was about as fun as usual. I moved quickly, not spending too long so the scent wouldn't linger. I moved down the line, going from one to the next.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much useful salvage. All five of their weapons, Sentinel Breach-17s, were messed up by the grenades and falls. Nothing major, and stuff I might be able to fix. I didn't have the time or parts though. There were two rifles I set aside, alongside their ammo.

The ballistic vests were in tatters for all but the last guy to die. The Rhymer had obliterated the first guy's armor, and the rest were in a bad state thanks to the grenades. I didn't really want to cart around a ballistic vest though. Not down here.

There was nothing else of note- oh! Except for a shattered wand. Thankfully, the Adept was taken out with the initial explosion. Things could've gone much more differently if he'd lasted long enough to get some magic off.

The rest of their stuff was either not worth the hassle of dragging around, or busted. I briefly thought about the helmets, but they had built-in comm links. Who knows what kinda tracking stuff they had.

None of the people had any form of identification, and they didn't even carry around phones. They were like a black ops squad, though admittedly far less equipped than an actual elite team. The lack of explosives amongst the team, even just flash or stun grenades, hammered home that the group were just low-level grunts; albeit trained ones.

I grabbed the microwire I used to set up the tripwires. The stuff was damn handy, especially considering its near invisibility and incredible strength. I brought all of the goodies over to Mira. "This is it."

Mira picked up a SB-17 and ran a hand across the receiver. "Standard issue for Fedra. Their armor too."

"You guys were right then?" I asked.

She pulled out the magazine and showed me the bullets. They were marked just the same as the FSA marked their own ammo. "Chek. A lot of their gear is stolen from FSA traitors. Pa was sure this was related to Fedra, but seeing this makes it more… real?"

"I know what you mean." I hefted the other rifle. "What do you think?"

"The SB-17 is a solid gun." She took the other rifle and half the ammo. Quicker than I could get it strapped onto myself, she ran through a check of the weapon like some kind of master gunsmith.

"Could be a frame job. Terrorist organizations make an easy target." Why were they down here anyway? It just didn't make much sense. This place had been here for ten years. Why keep it under guard?

"Doesn't really matter then, yeah?" Mira shrugged. "A terrorist framing a terrorist- at the end of the day, they're both terrorists."

"Chek." Right, they were nothing but terrorists monsters who deserved what they got… it made it easier to look down and not see red, anyway.

I shifted in the vest a bit, tugging on it to free up some breathing room. I tossed the Rhymer into my bag and held the SB-17 as my new main weapon. The Rhymer was effective, but only having one shot was a major issue. It was all too easy to get suppressed while reloading.

"Moving?" Mira took the lead, slowly walking down the hall. She looked about the shattered shopfronts and turned back to me. "Always sad being in places like this…"

I tossed my bag over my shoulder and made sure everything was in its proper place. The new rifle's strap pulled on the vest weird, but it'd just be something I'd have to get used to. "What do you mean?"

"Just- you know… been out in the Outlands a lot. Been really close to the Eternal Sandstorm." She paused for a moment, looking around the dusty shopfronts. "Been to a lot of abandoned cities and structures. All feel the same. Almost… lonely? Yet a desperate desolate loneliness. It's always so sad… to think, people once walked these halls, and now its just… here. By itself."

"I guess." I looked around, but all I saw were the abandoned shopfronts. Not this 'loneliness' she talked about. "You uh- you were ready to move on? Or do you need a minute?"

Her head dropped for a moment before she shook it. "Let's just get going."

Mira took point down toward the entrance of the metro. It was a lone escalator that had probably led up to the surface at one point. Now, though, the thing had collapsed halfway up. A natural cave cut into it, leading further into the depths.

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